Folklore of Bombay

The author has prepared the text of The Folklore of Bombay painstakingly. The Presidency of Bombay, which included parts of the Deccan, Konkan and Gujarat are the subject of this book. The book is a full of synopsis of the folklore of the Bombay area. He has gathered together a vast mass of items which he has classified under subject headings—such as worship of natural objects, tree-and snake-worship, spirit-possession, totemism and animal-worship, evil-eye, dreams and omens, etc. Under each category he cites a large number of beliefs and practices, the material having been partly collected by him and partly derived from the works of other scholars. It is also full of fascinating customs, manners and rites of the people who resided there. Each chapter deals with a different subject covering the religious, mythological, mythical, super-natural, social, health, feminine and agricultural perspectives of this past society. The compilation of this material must have involved much labour and search. The value of such a “corpus” of facts is evident, and the volume will prove an important reference-work. It was first published in 1924.